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NL DIVISION SERIES: CARDINALS VS BRAVES

October 8, 2019

Mike Foltynewicz

St. Louis, Missouri - Workout Day

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Mike Foltynewicz.

Q. I don't know how well you recall the moment when they sent you to Gwinnett and the conversation you had with Snit. But I'm just curious about how that experience has shaped you and maybe how the year in entirety has prepared you for this moment.
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: Yeah, at the beginning of the year you don't really expect all those things to happen. You go expecting to -- trying to be on the opening day roster to being injured. And just trying to get back as hard as possible.

And then you get sent down, you really have to look at yourself in the mirror and just kind of grow up. And I never pouted.

We always talk about the amount of support I've had from my wife, driving out to Louisville and Durham and all these places just to have my family there and kids. All those things tie into just to get me back on track and just to keep a positive mind.

Because like I said before, you can think negatively really quick and kind of get in a little hole. But as I said, it's not only my wife and kids, but the coaching staff down there, the guys I was down there with -- Duvy, Ortega, all those guys were down with me.

And we all had one goal in mind still, and we wanted to get back up here and help these boys get to where they needed to be. And just had to do a lot of growing up again. And just kept my head down kept working and pounding to get to this, to where we are today.

I knew we'd be in this situation, and now just gotta go out and execute and go out and slow the game down and just go out and be aggressive and attack.

Q. Having been through the playoffs a few times now, how much better prepared do you feel for going in there in a Game 5 situation tomorrow?
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: A little better prepared. Just going to go in and get your work -- just lining up to be a normal start day, got my days in between, got my bullpens in, all that fun stuff.

Now it's just really going out and executing. We've seen these guys plenty of times now. They've seen me. Kind of just like a chess game a little bit. And just gotta go out there and really just focus and execute.

We've seen a good job, I think, of both teams just really slowing the game down and making pitches, timely hitting, all that stuff.

All these games, all four of these games have just been tremendous. I don't have any nails right now. I mean it's just edge of the seat. So all the stuff. There's a lot of experience on both teams. It's just really coming to the fact that you're really seeing how it's been playing, and now it's just really going out there and executing pitches.

Obviously in this game just how it's a game of inches. You really do. So now it's just go and execute a little bit of luck is here and there involved with it. But just going to go out, play as hard as we can. But there's experience both ways. So it's going to be very interesting and very fun.

Q. What do you see yourself doing in the next 24 hours so you don't dwell on the enormity of this game?
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: That's a good question. I've been thankful to live here the past few years. And my wife and kids are going to be here so I get to spend the evening with them. And usually that just takes my mind off things.

I've got three dogs, too, so it's pretty fun at home, to take my mind off things. But just over the past few years, when I had my son, you know, when you get home a lot of things just don't matter anymore. But this scenario is a little different.

But, again, my wife's been there by my side this whole time, too. And she knows what to say at the right times. And along with my teammates. So there's nothing really you can do. Just go home, relax, try to get some rest, get some meals in you -- hydrate, all that fun stuff.

And just get ready for tomorrow, just like a normal day and just get prepared like normal and get my little work in here today. And, like I said, just go relax, maybe watch some "Toy Story 4." I saw that came out on DVD and Comcast. So maybe me and Jett might be on that.

Q. Two questions about your slider and Flaherty's curveball, two kind of the special pitches here. You've probably answered it, so short version if you want. How did you find your slider? Was it just simply no pressure down there, obviously, to win games necessarily?
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: Sure. You go down there and that was the main focus in the meetings and all that -- go down there, get your slider back. And whatever else it may be. That and just the mentality of getting off that injury, just making sure it's going to hold up through all this.

We still got a long season, got that one goal in mind. I was just a little hesitant. I think I was just, like I said, messing with my mechanics a little bit. But when I went down there I realized we're going to throw the heck out of this thing, we're really going to execute it. We're really going to get my mechanics in line and just really drive through this pitch as best we can.

We wanted to get it in a certain location, like I said. Results didn't really matter, but at the same time that's not our thought process. When you're out there, you're still wanting to win games, still wanting to compete down there.

That helps you for these situations when you're up here because I tell a lot of people, you can't replicate when you're on the mound in a big league game, let alone when you're in the playoffs. So it's just working on that when you're down there.

It's really slowing the game, really slowing my mechanics down so it comes natural when I'm out in these type of situations, where I think this really helped me.

But it's just one pitch I knew I needed. It was a breakout pitch last year. It got me to where I am today, and I just know I needed it. And if something happened, it happened. And we would have taken care of; we would have went from there.

But we are where we are today, and we're just going to keep working on it. Just, like I said, just get my mechanics a little adjusted and all that fun stuff, and we'll be ready to go tomorrow.

But it kind of goes back to slowing the game down. It really helps my mechanics out too.

Q. And Flaherty, you've been facing him, is it a knee-buckler? How would you describe his curveball?
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: You've seen my at-bat sometimes. But I like to just, us pitchers talk sometimes a lot just about hitting, what we see up there and all that stuff just on -- you know, Wainwright the other day, Soroka comes in, he says, he's got the perfect spin on it. He's like, I was sitting on it, too.

He drops it in on me like that. So, it's all those types of things. But actually try to sit on his slider (indiscernible) that one time. And it's just such a good pitch, you really can't pick up the spin on it. You get a lot of hitters saying that, too. It's just when you can't pick up the spin on it, you're doing something right.

And with all these shadows we've been playing with, almost in every game, a hit is a just a little bit harder on those guys.

So just their whole staff, man, it's just been four good games so far -- pitching, hitting, bullpen -- you see not many runs have been scored. When they do, they're late and everyone's been fighting until the last out.

These boys put up a good battle. Jack last time, I know they're going to do it again. And I'm just going to go out there and battle and keep these boys in it as best as I can, as long as I can.

Q. You got to pitch in the deciding game last year that maybe didn't -- does history matter at all? Everybody makes a lot about the Braves haven't won a postseason series since '01 or what, nine in a row. And a lot of series have ended here in Atlanta, Turner Field and here last year. You don't think about that at all? Does that play into this at all?
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: No, I mean, a lot of people have a lot of chances over these past four games to win a ball game. Where we're at right now, that just tells you how good these two teams are. What happens in the past, I mean, that's just playing baseball for as long as I've had, a lot of people have put in your head; you've literally got to forget what happened yesterday.

You've got 162 games, 30 starts. So that's been kind of my thing over the past few years, to really just forget what happened in the past, good or bad even. Like you said, you've gotta get ready for the next one, especially if it happened last year, two years ago.

It is what it is. Baseball gods are going to play it out how it is. And so we've got home field advantage this time. We've been playing great in front of a home crowd all year; they've been bringing the energy since Game 1; we opened up here.

And now we'll go, like I said, it's just all about executing, like I said, a game of inches. You've seen it the last few games. And we're going to be ready for tomorrow, though.

Q. You say you have to forget things, but you don't want to forget your last outing here against these guys here, do you? How much can you feed off what you did against them the last time?
MIKE FOLTYNEWICZ: A lot, just because we saw how aggressive they were. At the same time they can be patient. So, like I said, I've faced these guys a few times in the season, third time last time. This is going to be my fourth time.

It's almost just like a chess game -- a lot of reading of the swings, see if they're moving up, in, out in the box, just a lot about pitching, mixing it up.

At the same time, it's just you never know how you're going to feel on the days you start. You might have a pitch; you might not have one. It's just all about how you feel that day.

But everybody's going to be ready, Game 5. I'm sure the adrenaline will be pumping both sides. Everybody's going to be aggressive, everyone's going to be ready. We'll take all those things into consideration and go from there.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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